Morrissey At The Palladium

Last night I dashed up to London after work to see the ever fabulous Morrissey. It was kind of strange in the pub beforehand watching the rioting unfold on the TV. I had earlier been joking about it thinking it was an isolated one off small event, watching London burn in front of me made it all seem so much more serious and real.

Morrissey had played Brixton the night before which had become a civil unrest hot spot and as I entered the London Palladium, current home of The Wizard Of Oz, I was a bit taken aback at being fully frisked and a lot of security there.

Morrissey started his set by saying welcome to my world and do I look like Sacha Distel. He looked very dashing in a smart suit and tie and ran through all the classics. I particularly enjoyed You Have Killed Me, You're The One For Me Fatty, Come Back To Camden, Every Day Is Like Sunday and Ouija Board.

I had that awful thing in front of me however, the middle aged gay Morrissey fan. Punching the air to any obscure b side so they could prove they were a bigger fan than anyone else, then talking to your boyfriend through the verse and punching the air again for the chorus.

The venue was a really strange choice and it was like Beatlemania with fans crawling over the seats to try and touch him. Bear in mind these were 50 year old men not teenage girls. With no crash barriers some idiots thought it would be clever to leap on the stage and one song was stopped whilst security took them off the stage and Morrissey said where were we and started up again. These idiots had great expensive seats and after seeing the other morons being bundled off stage they decided to do the same thing, just getting hurled out of the venue. The couple in front of me were appalled by the bouncer brutality and started booing. I wish they'd been bundled out.

Morrissey touched on the rioting and the inadequacy of the government but saved his scorn for the royals. He played a lot of Smiths songs and finished with Meat Is Murder with some really gruesome video footage from abattoirs. Coming back to do First Of The Gang To Die, which was sung along to fans being constantly bundled off stage.

It was a great night and Morrissey was brilliant but I was glad to get home and out of Dodge.